Year in Review 2020

New home, new state, new job are just a few of the "new" things that happened.  There was also a loss of job, a pandemic and a shut down.  This year was very much unpredictable.  I was able to get some woodworking done.  I found a guild that I was going to until meetings were canceled.  I did not find any locations that take handmade toys, so I did not make any.  In August I found out I would be moving again after the school year so I am not as motivated to set roots down and establish the charity connections.

My favorite project was probably the desk.  It did not perfectly as I had hoped, but it is a simple looking desk that is well built.  The other furniture was a nice change of pace to the toys that I was making.  I had the opportunity to make a lot of mortise and tenon joints and work with some really nice cherry.  I also gave my hand tools more of a work out than they are use to.

Tools I picked up this year.  The list is small, but they are large.  I picked up a planer.  Now that I am buying lumber in the rough I have to do more processing.  I picked up the benchtop Dewalt.  It works well for the amount of lumber I use.  I also updated my cordless tools.  My current set did not hold a chare and were only 14v.  I upgraded to the 20v and purchased an additional driver and circular saw.   I now understand why cordless is becoming so popular.  I also purchased a couple of small tools and they were game changers for me.  I bought a Woodpeckers square and ruler.  The company is known for precision tools.  I learned quickly that the big box squares are not square.  Layouts were better and they are enjoyable to work with.  I also purchased a couple of marking tools.  I have also enjoyed using them.

I did not have any new toy designs.  I am not sure where to go at the current time and looking for some inspiration.  The furniture designs are not published.  There are several plans for mission style bedroom furniture.  I did not want to add mine to it.  It was also nice just to make and not worrying about the quality of the drawings and instructions.

From a business standpoint I did ok for what was going on.  My Etsy sales doubled and the interest has increased a lot.  I have received more toy sales that I have "free" shipping on everything. I have had several people reach out about projects and personal designs.  Some I can do others I cannot.  I had to turn business away this year.  Usually I have one or two projects during the holidays this year I had six solid requests.  I was only able to custom make 4 toys.  Winfield has slowed down a lot.  My designs are stale there.  I have thought about reaching out again to add more, but they have not been very responsive in the past.  I have signed up with a startup web page that just sells plans.  Traffic is light right now but time will tell.

I am not sure what next year is going to bring except another move, another lumber yard, hopefully another club.  

A year of cleaning the Kitchen

 I made it a goal this year to clean the kitchen every Saturday for an entire years.  I just want to preface this post with "this is not a cleaning post and I do not consider myself as an expert cleaner. "  I will never say "it is not clean until..."  because most likely I didn't do it.

I will start with the assumption "If I tell everyone that I am cleaning the kitchen every Saturday, everyone will just leave all the dishes for Saturday for me to do."  In part that was true.  My wife did plan dinners depending on what pans were clean towards the end of the week. The kids complained when they had to load the dishwasher, but they always do that.  I also found myself falling into another assumption.  "Do I want to have the fight with the kids to clean the kitchen or do I just wait until Saturday to do it."  It would be easier and less of a fight.  I think that happened just as often.

About the floor.  There are two philosophies that I have heard.  One is that you sweep the floor before cleaning the kitchen so you don't worry about the water that gets on the floor.  The other is that you sweep the floor after you are done, so you can wipe things onto the floor and then sweep it up.  I am efficient (that is what I will call it), so the latter was more appealing.  Besides, sweeping water is like mopping the floor, right?

When I cleaned was determined early on.  I tried to clean the kitchen before the kids woke up.  This way it was done before the breakfast dishes and before the three tornados come through.  Later in the day made it hard to get the motivation to do it.  I also made a point to clean the kitchen before I did any woodworking in the garage.  It is the philosophy of get what you don't want to do first.  I was hoping that my kids would get this concept.  They did not.

I hoped that this goal would do a couple of things.  The first would be a cleaner kitchen and it did that pretty well.  If I had done the deeper cleans periodically it would be better, but I am lazy.  I hoped it would set an example of work for my kids and show them to get things done early and consistently makes the job easier.  That did not happen.  They still do not understand why they have to do things they hate to do.   I was also hoping that with a clean kitchen the rest of the house would not be too bad so we could invite other over to meet new friends.  I think everyone knows how that went in the year 2020.

I don't know if I will continue this through the next year.  It was a good thing for me to do and it was somethings that I could accomplish over and over again.  What will next year bring, I don't know.

Anderson Family 2020

 

Dear Friends and Family,

We had all intentions of writing a Christmas letter this year.  Well, that did not happen just like the family pictures we wanted to take.  This year did not turn out like we had expected but there are many things that we are be grateful for.

This year was going to be a new section, not just a chapter, in the Anderson household.  I received a job offer that moved the family at the beginning of the year.  We moved across the country and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  The move went surprisingly well.  We were able to purchase a home in a sought-after community. We are very happy where we are.  So here is an update on the family.  We will be omitting the names of the kids because this is going on a public site

I am back working for American Woodmark after a brief time at idX. I was able to find a woodworking club until March, but they did not have any toy drives.  I have made some toys, but I have been focusing on building bedroom furniture this year.  I have had my best year on Etsy, and there has been a lot of inquiries in the neighborhood.

Katie had been keeping herself busy by being a fulltime stay-at-home teacher and mother.  She recently started teaching English to Chinese kids though the online program VIP kid.  She is really enjoying it and the kids seem to like her also. 

Number one is enjoying himself in middle school.  He has joined the strategic games club at school and is mastering the ninja rope outside.  He enjoys climbing things even though he cannot always get down.  He is getting taller everyday and staying healthy.  We are hoping he will be able to run track in the spring.

Number 2 probably had the hardest time with the pandemic because he needs to be around people.  He is doing will when he is in school and with others.  He enjoys Legos and Minecraft.  The best thing that has happened out here for him is all the bugs he has been finding and all the animals.

Number three is definitely the youngest and thinks he can get away with anything.  When he is in trouble, he turns on the charm.  This works on everyone else but his parents.  He is enjoying the First grade and doing everything that his brothers are doing.  He is becoming quite the reader

This year we have been able to visit the Natural History museum, Air and Space Museum, and the National Zoo.  With social distancing the crowds have been lite, and the hands-on exhibits have been closed.  We are liking it here on the east coast.  The pandemic has made it difficult to make friends and meet people, but we have overcome despite the challenges.

Hope you and your families have a happy holidays and stay safe.

With Much Love,

Sometimes I just want to stop

Fair warning this is a little bit venting.

I have been on Etsy for over 5 years now.  I consider it passive income because most of the items I sell on the platform are plans.   For the most part it has been a good experience.  There are times where I wonder if it is even worth it.  My store has been gaining more popularity in the past couple of years.  In part from social media and a couple of magazine articles I have written.  I have also seen an increase in sales where the person thought they were buying a product when it is only the plan.  I have also seen an increase in people wondering why my Etsy price is cheaper than the price I quote them to make the toy.  

When people ask about prices it is usually pretty easy to explain.  I will try and go out of my way to explain and offer suggestions.  I had a non profit that wanted me to make toys for them to sell.  They did not understand why the plan was $3 and I was quoting them $15 for each toy.  I wasn't going to be able to take the business because they were out of the country, but I wanted to help.  I ended up sending them the plans and told them to find a local wood worker to make them at the sizes they wanted.  Usually the price concerns are easy to resolve.

I have been having more people order plans and expecting the product.  I do have a no refund policy on plans because they are immediately downloaded.  This is typical in plan sales.  Usually when a plan is ordered in mistake the person will notify me of their mistake.  I handle these case by case. Be kind to me and I will reciprocate.  It is the emails saying something like, "When is this going to ship.  I have been waiting for two months," that bother me.  This year I have decided to take an unapologetic approach to these mistaken plan sales.  This is my typical reply:

Thank you for purchasing ______ plan.  You should have received an email with a link to download the plan.  Sometimes this is sent to spam.  I have attached the plan you purchased.  Thank you again for your purchase.

Most of the time I don't get a response.  When I do it makes me question if I want to continue in the retail environment. The customer feels it is my fault and I am not clear that this is just a plan.  The plan that has been the most problematic has been the cradle.  I have reviewed the description and title and could not find a better way to say that this is a plan.  I don't want to capitalize "PLAN ONLY".  It looks like I am shouting and it is tacky. Here is my little vent:

If you are buying on-line it is your responsibility to read the descriptions and understand what you are buying.  My shop is called All Natural Toy Plans (italics added).  The title says "Wood Toy Plan" then the item.  The summary in all my plans say "plans can be printed on 8.5 x 11" paper."  The last sentence reads: purchase is for the plan only.  I think I say it enough.  But just in case, I have added "*plan only*" at the beginning of each description.  I think this looks tacky.  Seriously, if you purchase one of my plans thinking it is a product, own the mistake an move on.  It is not my fault you made the purchase so stop blaming me that you didn't read the description.  I have no fine print. I have no disclaimers.  I definitely am not trying to deceive any one. I have over 400 sales and only about 2% order plans by mistake. Only two people think that I have actually deceived them.

My rant continues with the cradle since this seems to be the most mistaken as a product.  The plan is $10.  Something must go off in your head that this deal is too good to be true.  This plan is for a 21" cradle with custom fretwork on the side.  There is no shipping because it is a download.  My small toys cost $6-$8 to ship.  Seriously, if the deal looks too good, make sure you understand what you are buying.  I sell these cradles for $100 each at craft fairs.

I know that Etsy is not the best place to sell plans, but it is a platform that I use.  Others also use it because there is a total section for digital downloads and plans.  It has worked well for me.  I know that I am not the only one that has this issue.  I have read one star reviews on other plan stores, they are all because they expected an object and got a digital download.  

Rant over.

I am not shutting down my shop anytime soon.  It has been too much fun meeting new people.  Others sharing what they have made from my plans.  There has been some great things come from this experience.  

This year has actually been a good year for me on Etsy.  I contribute a lot of the success to being published and covid.  It is nothing to quit my job over, but it offset the costs of a planer, and lumber this year.

Workshop Classes

This is probably the best location to put consistent information about the workshop classes that I am currently doing.  Information will probably changes and adapt as covid regulations increase or decrease.  

I am holding workshop woodworking classes in my garage about twice a month; at least that is the plan starting in January.  I will be posting links on Facebook and NextDoor.  I am working on a google sheet for sign ups so that people can sign up for the project and date.  I have space for two people at a time for the smaller projects and only one for the larger projects.  All tools and supplies will be provided.  Currently everyone will need to come with a face mask or shield.  Shields are preferred because they do not fog up the safety glasses.  Classes will range from 1-3 hours in length.  These projects are on the simpler side to teach basics of nailing, drilling, cutting, sanding, and assembly.  It will not go into fine woodworking joinery and furniture.

Here are a list of potential projects.  Not all the designs have been vetted out so I don't have pictures of all of them.

• Construction trucks - 1-3rd grades
• Napkin holder - 1-3rd grades
• Holiday luminary - 4th grade and above
• Christmas Ornament - 4th grade and above
• Cell phone holder - 4th grade and above
• Bird House - 2-6th grade
• Cradle - 9th grade and above
• Scroll saw basics - 4th grade and above (prerequisite for many of the other classes)
• Catapult - 4th grade and above
• Name Plaque 1-3rd grade
• Puzzles - 4th grade and above
• Car launcher - 3-4th grade

To sign up for the workshops please look for the posts on social media sites and respond via email.  This is a first come first serve basis.  I will have some priority for new kids for the younger classes.

Workshop Classes

 I am starting up classes again.  I am running these a little differently,  It is not a 14 week class but a couple of ours.  Right now I am only having 2 people at a time because I have two work spaces for separation.  My first two classes were for kids 1-3rd grade.  We made a name plaque and a tow truck.  They painted and put them together.  Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the tow truck.  Each class was about an hour long.  I will be working up to larger projects but I also want to include projects for the younger kids also.  Overall, I think the kids had fun.  It is easier for me to let other kids do projects than let my kids do it on their own.  These classes are promoted through facebook groups and the next door app.

Color experimenting

 I am working on putting together workshops for kids to learn and make some things out of wood.  My struggle has been the painting.  Young kids really like painting and coloring there stuff so I need to come up with a solution.  

Here are the things I have thought about:

• 
  Markers - may not be very messy but also not very affordable.  Wood and markers also don't go together well because wood is more abrasive than paper and will wear down the tips quickly.  On the positive side they do not make a mess and they will clean up with water.  They also dry fast.
• Acrylic paint - It is a lot more messy, stains clothes, and takes forever to dry because kids layer it on pretty thick.  It is also uses more stuff because brushes need to be cleaned and rinsed with water.  On the plus side it is cheap and one bottle can be used multiple times.
• Paint pens - are not affordable and have chemicals that I don't want kids using.
• Food dyes - are thin and dry quickly.  They are too liquid for me to have kids use.  
• Water color pallets - They are about a $1 a piece on amazon so they are affordable if they are reusable.  Mixing colors and contamination is very likely when kids use them

I tried making my own.  I tried two things: drying out acrylic paint and drying out food coloring.  These were dried on parchment paper because that is what I had.  I put aluminum foil under the food dies because I was not sure if it would bleed through.  It did not. Here are some of the key observations that I made.

 Acrylic paint comes in many colors and food dyes typically come in four so I did have to make some of my own colors and I did not have black or white.

• The yellow dye looks a lot like orange
• The acrylic paint dried in about 24 hours.  The dyes did not seen to dry after 72 hours
• The dyes stain my hands while the paint washed of with soap, water and a little scrubbing.
• The acrylic paint rehydrated with some water and a paint brush.  it did stake some work and the colors were translucent and not opaque.

The next step is to see how the parchment paper holds up to kids and painting.  The other nice thing that was nice with the paint was the viscosity.  I could put the paint down and put another piece of parchment on top.  Pat it down a little bit and peel the two sheets apart.  I now had two painting papers.

Puzzle Ornaments

 This is another pattern that I found on the web.  Thought it looked interesting and I had some scrap that I could try them out on.  I like the idea.  My execution and final assembly was not good.  My hole for the ribbon was too big.  I drilled it at 1/4" and I should have made it closer to 1/8".  I think the patterns could have used a little work also.  Not all the pieces lock together.  It is a pet peeve of mine if they don't.  Painting them was not difficult and added a nice touch.  I don't know if I will do these again, but I might actually take the idea to some line art in the web.  I also might consider making them bigger and changing some of the lines.  Again, I liked the idea and the concept is good.  I fault myself on the execution and look.

This Year’s Christmas Ornament

This was a crazy year for me.  I had the nativity ornament already picked out.  The wood choice for the family ornament is poplar.  There is not much special about poplar.  It is considered a hard wood even though it is pretty soft.  This wood is always in stock in my shop because it is what I use to make the toys that I designed for the first time.  It is also what I make most of my toys I donate.  It paints very well and is inexpensive.  Poplar will always have a place in my shop. 

It came clear in April that another ornament would need to be made.  I found a couple designs and saying on Etsy about this pandemic.  The ornaments I found were laser engraved.  I took them and cut out then used paint pens to paint the designs in paint pens.  The lesson learned from this project is that carbon paper does not wipe off with a little bit of water.  It is my first-time using carbon paper where I was not going to sand it off.  I wanted to copy the lettering, but it was not going to work out.  I used my own handwriting than a decorative lettering.  I will not be offering these to the public because I took the design from someone else.  These are going to family and coworkers.  When I started these, the coworkers were not very many so they were made out of solid wood.  I had a team of four and a couple of others in the office.  I was let go due to the pandemic.  After a short time, I was rehired by the parent company of the company I worked for in California.  This made my coworker pool increased a lot.  I took some ¼” plywood and painted one side white.  I then cut out and painted them.  I actually like the white painted ones better then wood ones I made.

That is this year's ornament.

Honey, I Blew up the Toys

I had a fair amount of off cuts of several thicknesses of cherry from the furniture that I have been building.  I wondered for a little bit what to do with it.  My small series was made mostly of 3/4" material so it made since to just double it, sort of.  

The problem was that the lumber I had was not all the same thickness and too small to run through a planer.  I took some liberties on thicknesses and dimensions to make it work.  I only had enough off cuts to make four different models.  I probably like the jeep and the plane the best.  I would like to see what the dump truck would be doubled.  Maybe after a few more projects.

Fun project to double the size.  I needed to enlarge a couple of the templates.  I took a couple of liberties with the dowel placements and widths.  It was also surprised how big they were compared to the originals.  I will probably do this again when I get different thicknesses of lumber.

 

Bug Chest of Drawers

 

My middle child needed a dresser for his room. He had drawers that went under his bed but we lofted the bed so the drawers just moved around the room when he needed space.  I put together a design for a painted chest of drawers that he could help in the color and painting.  

I figured I would use cheaper materials, but I don't know how much cheaper they were.  The side frames are poplar and the rest of the carcass is MDF.  The drawers are the cheap import plywood that is a pain to work with.  I used a stain blocking primer, because I knew there were places in the house that I would need to prime also.  I purchased a quart of flat bright white interior paint and half a gallon of orange acrylic paint.  For the top coat, I used water based polyacrylic.  

Construction is pretty simple.  The sides are a frame and panel where everything was pre-finished.  The only thing that I would have done different would be to stencil the patterns on before assembling the panel.  Th insert panel is MDF that has been primed and painted.  The face frame is MDF and screwed into the sides.  I had some left over poplar so those were made into the back rails.  It has a full back panel and the top is 1/2" MDF.  I should have used 3/4" but I did not want to buy a sheet for just one top.  The top is held in place by construction adhesive.  I would have liked a couple of mechanical fasteners.  

I did have my helper paint.  It was good for him to be part of the project.  He did do all the the stenciling.  I did learn a couple of things with working with my son on this project.  The first and most important is that I cannot do it for him.  He rolled the primer on all the parts and put on the white paint.  I did do some touch up work, but he did do a god job.  I also learned that there is a time limit for how much he will do.  Once the time is up, I can work on the parts of the project that he is not able to do.  It is hard to hold back "suggestions" on how I would like to see it done.  He needed to chose the stencils and placement.  He is a very linear thinker that thinks outside the box.  The stencils are all oriented in the same position, but the color scheme is all his.  I would have liked it a little more symmetrical but he wanted nothing to do with it. he also did not like the scorpion and centipede stencils.  

I think the project works well for my son.  He was extremely proud of what he did and how it turned out.  I would have liked it to be a little cleaner in the paint area but a lot of that was my fault.  He now has a place to put away his clothes, now we will see if his room stays cleaner longer.  

The inspiration for the project was first to have a place for my son's clothes.  After looking at the costs of dressers I thought I could build a better one for slightly over the cost of buying one.  I was looking at around the $220 range. Here is the cost break down and total

hardware	$49.98
lumber	$77.62
tools	$40.17
paint	$48.36
Grand total	$216.13

If you add in labor at $10/hour (minimum wage and easy calculation), the labor cost alone would be $240.  This brings the total to $456.13.  I know that people would say they would buy it for this much to be nice, but in reality they would go for the mass manufactured one about half the price.  When you look at craft fairs and think things are expensive, the makers are not really making a lot of money because most do not add in labor.  I woodwork because I like to create not to make money.

Bedroom Furniture: Bookselves

I recently completed the bookshelf for our room.  It is in the same design as the other pieces of furniture.  The bookshelf has open sides with slats and two sections.  One side has one adjustable shelf and the other side has two adjustable shelves.  I did not do a complete design of this, only sketches like the other pieces.  It was designed at 15" seep to handle some of our photo albums. Looking back, I probably could have reduced the depth to 12" and put the photo albums elsewhere.  It is deep but it does work.

The construction of the unit is very similar to the night stands with thicker legs and top.  I purchases 8/4 (1 3/4") thick lumber instead of 6/4 (1 1/4").  That was not planned but it looks good because it is a larger unit.  I used the slats to hide the shelf hardware.  the concept work well.  I used a template to make sure the hole spacing was consistent on each of the legs.  I used a router this time to cut the grooves in the rails that hold the slats in place.  I was hoping this would be more consistent than the dado stack on the table saw.  It was for all but one of the rails.  I am not sure what happened with the one piece.  It all worked out in the end since I cut the slats thick.  I did find out that I do need a better slot cutter than the one that came in the multi pack. The one I have dulled after half way through the parts and started to chip out on the edges.  All joints are mortise and tenon and I would hope that I would have become a little better.  I don't think I have improved much.

The cabinet is totally over designed.  It is all solid wood, even the shelves and bottom panel.  The shelves are 7/8" thick.  I now buy rough lumber, so I just plane to get the defects out and that is the final thickness.  I did have a little issue with the glue up this time.  I glued up the right side panel and left side of the center piece.  with hand cut joints each one fits in one spot.  I had to clean out a lot of epoxy.  The good part was my loose joints were no longer loose.

I am happy with the project and how well it goes with the rest of the set.  I think I will be doing a printer stand next.  I need to test a look before I put design it into the headboard

The New Computer Desk

This project went a little faster than expected.  I was working more from home and needed something in a quieter place than the family room.  A desk was planned for our room, it just moved up in priority.  It is a very similar design to the nightstands and constructed in the same manor.  I wish that I could say that it was easier since I had made the nightstands but there were still some major mistakes made in the building of the project.

The design is pretty simple.  I wanted a simple, straight forward desk that would not hold a lot of stuff.  It was supposed to hold a printer, but I think that changed.  It can but it makes it a very tight fit.  It was going to have a single drawer to hold pencils and a note pad.  We found out after that will also hold a wireless keyboard.

The main difficulty was the size of the top.  There is an undercut bevel that would not fit on table saw.  I had to cut it with a circular saw.  It did take a lot of cleanup afterwards.  The jointing of the three pieces also proved to be a challenge that I was not ready for.  I did it by hand first because my planer could not edge plane the pieces. I ended up cupping the boards.  I ended up running the smaller piece through the planer to edge joint the piece.  That gave me a reference surface to match the other two pieces.  It was a pain, but the glue joints came out great.

The other issue I had was a complete mistake that I should have known better.  I was moving the base and the top clamp came off.  I was using 5-minute epoxy and it had been clamped for 30 minutes.  I did not put the clamp on because I figured it was cured enough.  The back to joint separated just enough to make me annoyed.  I did not fix it because the back is going to be up against the wall.

I like how the desk turned out and it works well.  I also got the dove tails fight this time

Catapults

I think I cope with stress by designing and building weaponized toys.  The ping pong ball guns and now the catapult.  I can remember the stress I was under when I made the trebuchet and the rubber band Gatling gun. The intent of the catapult design was for science.  The design was to allow to figure out the best angle of trajectory, where the rubber band should be placed, and the length of arm.  

I probably oversized the catapult.  The length of the catapult is 24” and the plans need to be printed on 11x17 paper.  I don’t regret the size; it works well.  I might come back and make a desk top version.

The saw tooth design is so the dowels can be moved to change the angle of trajectory, where the rubber band is placed.  It also allows for the arm to easily be replaced.  Over the process of making it, I realized the location of the rubber band was not important but how many rubber bands. 

My kids assembled most of the catapults.  The oldest choose not to participate.  The younger two glued and screwed most of the pieces and cut the dowels to length.  They installed the hooks and placed the location of the dowel stops.  I actually think that I was able to teach the middle child some tricks. 

Here are the mechanical advantage lessons that I think I taught him.  If he remembers them that is a different story. 

• Wedges to split glued parts that are not supposed to be glued.  We used a chisel to separate a clamping joint that got stuck together with squeeze out
• Lever arms, we used a screwdriver to put in the multiple hooks required for the project
• Blade pinch, he learned what happens as you pinch a blade when trying to cut material. 
• What happens when… The catapult has several different options that can change trajectory and tension.  He was able to figure out that different angles caused the marshmallow to fly differently.  He was also excited when I added a second rubber band and told him I doubled his power. 

Overall, the project went well.  They are a little bigger than I thought they would be. They launch marshmallows and ping pong balls about 40 feet.  The kids had fun.

Bedroom Furniture: Nightstand

This was a quarantine project.  I had purchased the lumber for the project just before the shelter in place order had been issued.  This is what I would consider fine furniture, which is out of my comfort zone.  I had determined that this bedroom furniture was going to try out more traditional joinery.  This would be mortise and tenons and dove tails.

I worked with my wife on the design and material selection.  We like the simple clean design, so we went with a mission style look.  There were aspects of the aesthetics that were not decided until we started putting the parts together.  My wife liked the red-brown tone, so we went with cherry wood.  Which I am grateful for, because walnut would have been expensive.  Some of the design features I wanted to incorporate a couple of things.  The first was putting in a USB outlet. The second was open/slatted sides. 

The USB outlet was simple, but I made it complicated.  I did not want a cord hanging down the back of the cabinet.  I hollowed out the back of one of the legs and then put in a piece that was cutout in the middle to house the cord.  After the sides were put together, I dilled into the hollowed-out section to pull the cord through.  I realized before drilling that my tenons went through the hollowed-out section, so I needed to rethink where my holes where located.  Installation was harder than I wanted, but easier than expected.  I took string and put it in one hole and with a vacuum and sucked it out the other end.  Then I used the string to pull through the wiring for the USB charging port.  The wires are connected back together and then connections are put together using heat shrink tubes. 

The slatted walls were done by grooving the rails and then putting slats in the groove.  It really was not very difficult, and I simplified a lot of the details.  There are small pieces that needed to be put in the spaces between the slats.  I cut out the curves on the scroll saw so there was a top and bottom to the parts and they were unique to each pair.  I my try to use the router and a template for the next time.

There was a fair amount of learning from this project because this is not a type of woodworking that I do.  Here are some of the key insights:

• The legs have dimension.  When cutting all my rails I cut them to the width and depth of the nightstand.  I am grateful I figured out the mistake before gluing it all together. It allowed me to practice forming my tenons again.
• Rough lumber is not as scary as I thought it would be.  I could only get rough lumber and I have never worked with it.  There are some things that I have had to take into consideration.  The first is surfacing it then putting a straight edge on it.  It is not as difficult as a thought it would be.  It is not like the stuff I got from work a few years back. 
• Tenons don’t need to be supper long.  I made them one inch long.  They were going into 1 ½” legs.  I should have made them 5/8” long.  The tenons were not that difficult; it was the mortises.  They were a pain to clean out.  I will also make them wider than 5/16” next time.  The rails are ¾”+ thick.
• Epoxy: I don’t know.  It is the first-time using epoxy and it does fill in gaps.  It was a little messy and there was a fair amount of waste.  I have to say the joints are strong.
• Dove tails are easier to cut on a scroll saw.  I cut a couple of test ones out by hand.  I learned quickly that a cheap coping saw is no good for cutting out waste.  It was a pain and the blade moved everywhere.  It was easy to set the angle and cut on a scroll saw.  It is probably the same on a bandsaw.  Now if I just put the pins and tails on the correct part. 
• Rulers and tape measures become scales.  I have known this for some time, but it really came out in this build.  I needed to keep with in my constraints of height, width and depth.  Thickness of the boards was when all the saw marks were removed with a planer.  Groove thickness was based on what looked good.  Parts changed as things were put together.  The measuring devices were used more for consistency purposes rather than getting to a specific measurement.  That being said, I still depend heavily on my tape measure.
• Good joinery makes the assembly a lot easier.  The nightstands came out square and I did not have to worry about making sure all the parts were at the same spacing because all of that was planned for in the joinery.

Overall I am pleased with the look and design.  My wife choose the hardware and it looks better than the ones I was looking at.  Now onto the computer table.

The past 60 days

I really don’t know how long it has been since we have been under “shelter in place” orders but 60 days sounds like a good round number.  I typically do not post these entries to the public on my blog but I feel the need to share my feelings. 

It has been interesting watching my social media feed.  I liked seeing all the fun things that people were doing.  Honestly it also sometimes made me feel jealous that I may not been included, or it was impossible for me to do.  Now, these types posts have gone and replaced with memes and spiritual/uplifting messages.  These messages are nice/funny/uplifting, but I cannot connect with them as I could with people and pictures.  It is lonely on social media these days.

I consider my self one of the fortunate ones.  I am still employed.  My family and I are healthy. However, I have, as a new manager, to make decisions that affect others.  I have had to let talented employees go, cut hours and have seen revenue streams dry up.  I have friends and family lose employment and health.  It is not fair.

I took my family across the country away from friends and family at the beginning of the year in hopes to start something better.  We were here long enough to start to make acquaintances and building friendships to have the doors slammed shut and connections fade.  We wave to our neighbors and to people we see. I have plenty of people around me but no one to talk to.

We had plans to do so much with the kids.  We are grateful that we were able to make it to DC once before the shutdown.  Parks and trails are closed.  There are so many things that we want to do that we crossed off the calendar.  The kids are bored and feel they need to occupy the time with screens.  I want to go places, but places are closed.

When the news started that we might shut down, I planned out some projects to fill any extra time that I might have during this time of uncertainty.  These included a couple of nightstands with traditional joinery, the projects with the kids, and some home improvement projects.  Many are almost completed, and I am running out of the things that I planned to do.  There is nothing to do anymore.

I am hearing that things are opening with conditions attached.  Slowly, and some quickly, states are starting to go back to a new normal.  Information is confusing and often contradictory.  We are trying to do what is asked.  These times are uncertain and confusing.

I am using technology to connect, have meetings.  Face to face social interaction has been replaced with face to screen.  My company is starting to invest in better AV equipment to cut down on travel expenses.  We are connected in several different platforms. It just is not the same as discussing a problem in a room, face to face.  I see and hear others but do not feel and connect with others.

If you have read this and are concerned, don’t be.  I am fine.  Things are different and they will be for some time.  We will get through this.

Ping Pong Ball Guns

In this time of quarantine and isolation, it has been hard to keep the kids entertained, busy and learning.  I have been trying to teach the scientific process and working though problems to a solution.  I am an engineer by career and degree, so these attributes are important to me.  I saw a plan to make a rubber band gun in a magazine.  I didn’t think it would be too hard to create experiments that would entertain the kids and allow them to look at data to come up with a solution.  This project was not as easy as I thought it would be.  Here are some of the highlights that I learned.

Setup:  I created a board with 11/32” holes spaced at ¾” from the centerline.  I was able to get 10 sets of holes.  I drilled 7/36” holes on the centerline and spaced them 1” apart.  I drilled 3/16” holes in a clothes pin 1” apart and put in 3/16” dowels.  Created spacers in 3/16” thick material.  Sorry, I did not take pictures of the test board.

Experiment 1

What height should the rubber band be placed to have optimal distance?  We set the rubber band holder and the clothes pin distances as constant and raised the clothes pin by 3/16” spacers. (This was the thickness of scrap I had. 1/8” would also work.)  My youngest helps with this part.  We had a sample size of 6 at each height.  The neat thing about this experiment was there was definite height that was the optimal height.

Experiment 2

What should the space between the pins that hold the rubber band be?  We set the height at the optimal height from the last experiment.  Unfortunately, we could not set the clothes pin distance constant.  As the pins get closer together the potential energy of the stretched rubber band is decreased.  Yes, I did consider this and had a solution, but I did not do it.  To compensate we moved the clothes pin back after we moved the rubber band pins in three times.  This did muddy the results.  There was a couple of spaces that did create very consistent results.  I did a sample set of 10 on this experiment because the middle child, who likes science, was helping me.  That was not a good idea because he had about the same attention span of the younger child.  Should have kept at 6 samples.

Experiment 3

How far back should the clothes pin be?  The rubber band pins and clothes pin height remained constant.  We were not too concerned with distance and consistency on this experiment.  We just wanted to see what distance the clothes pin could hold the rubber band without misfiring. 

Results

So, with all the data and observations, we determined the best dimensions for a rubber band gun.  I took some clip art and blew up the back section to trace patterns.  The kids and I traced and cut out the guns.  Attached the cross piece to hold the rubber band and the clothes pin.  The kids were excited and the wife not so much.  The oldest decided the ping pong balls were not that impressive so he has tried shooting other things. 

Here are some of my observations on this process.  Some are design related and others scientific.

• Bernoulli's principle – It was actually pretty cool to see this in action on the height of the clothes pin experiment.  Depending on the height of the rubber band it would put a top or bottom spin on the ball.  Top spin would make the ball just drop.  The bottom spin would cause the ball to float.  It made sense the optimal height was just below half the diameter the ball.
• Eight-inch rubber bands degrade quickly.  It only takes 5-10 stretches of a rubber band before it stretches over 8”.  We did account for this and change the rubber band for each experiment.  Where this proved to be difficult was experiment 2.  The distance that gave the most reliable results was when the rubber band stayed in place on the pins.  When the rubber band did not have the tension to keep it in place the results were not as consistent.  This was because we would have to put the rubber band after each shot.  A little high gave the ball more top spin and a little low and we would have more bottom spin.  On the guns we ended up wrapping the rubber band around each pin once to hold it in place
• Ergonomics and gun holding is a pain to figure out.  The trigger finger is not the index finger but the thumb.  That makes it difficult to hold.  It was a lot of cutting.  Cardboard only helps so much because it is only 1/8” thick. 
• Angling the clothes pin does not help a lot.  It actually could create a problem if angled too much; the rubber band might not fire.
• Clothes pins are cheap and break easily.  This could be because I made them not well supported and replaceable. 
• These guns are super inaccurate and unreliable, but fun and sort of safe to shoot. (doesn’t leave as big of a mark as the rubber band gatling gun; not speaking from experience)

It was a lot of work just for a two-piece wood project.  Worth it for the kids and glad they had fun.  Sorry no plans for this one.  It is better to make your own on this one.

Tools in Review

With the move across the country and a new job, I have had to purchase some tools that I have lost access to or just left behind. Here are some highlights.

A new lawn mower

I decided to ditch the gas lawn mower and left it in California.  I have heard good things about the Greenworks system and that is what I went with.  I have the lawnmower, edger and blower that work all on the same battery.  I have not been disappointed.  To be fair I have not mowed my entire lot in one go.  The single battery is able to cut the entire front yard.  I don't have grass in the back so not sure if it will do both.  To put things in perspective, I have a half acre of land.  This is the first time that I have had a self propelled mover.  It is nice to say my youngest had fun "pushing" it by himself.  Now he just needs to learn how to turn.




New Planer
I went with the home  brand standard of the DeWalt DW735.  It is a good planer and had access to one at my previous job.  I had always thought I would get the Shelix head to go with it.  But then there was a realization.  The new head would cost about $500.  New blades are $55 each and they are sharpened on both sides.  If I would replace them every year (this is a guess), It would take me 10 years to pay for the Shelix head.  By that time I may want to upgrade or go a different route.  While the Shelix is a good cutter head, I don't see the need to drop the money on one right now.  This may change now that I have to buy my lumber in the rough not surfaced two sides.  The biggest issue, and it is big, is that it does not hook up to a standard shop vac hose.  I am not sure what the connection is but I am taping the hose on right now.



New Cordless Tools
I broke down and got new DeWalt drill, diver and circular saw.  My old drill was no it's last legs and needed to be replaced.  Not much to say with the systems that I purchased.  The drills are smaller and easily used by my kids.  They helped me repair the fence.  The circular saw is a game changer.  Needed to cut a 2x4 stud to length and I didn't need to go to the chop saw.  I will say that the saw is a battery drainer.  I have two 2 amp batteries and it will drawing the batteries cutting down sheet stock.
New Hand Tools
This was the reason that I went to the Woodworking Show.  I picked up a hand saw and marking gauge at Lee Valley.  I am looking to do more traditional joinery on some furniture that I am making and these are kind of important in the laying out consistent marks.  I also picked up a square and marking ruler at Wood Peckers.  I know that these are square and it is amazing on how far off my other marking tools are.

The Woodworking Show

The nice thing about moving back east is there are the Woodworking Shows back here.  They stopped doing them on the west coast several years ago.  I have to say, it is an expensive not worth it show.  They advertised Kreg, Erlex and other vendors there. I was hoping to go to get some deals on some tools I needed for upcoming projects.  Well it was mostly resellers, so the deals were not there.  The entire show was something that I walked in an hour.  I had a nice chat with the Grex vendor about sprayers.  Purchased a couple of tools from Lee Valley and Wood Peckers. Probably will not go again. 

That being said I am interested in going to some of the larger shows, but that will require a little more planning and travel.  

New Dust Collection

Last year I bought a shop vac and dust deputy from Home Depot.  I was pleased how they worked but did not like the amount of room it took up.  I came across a video on YouTube that had this design for it.  The link can be found here. This is not my design, but I did make some changes to the original design.  One thing was that I had a different vacuum.  When I went to shop for the parts, I found that the 2 ½” PVC coupling was not snug in the foot attachment holder.  I did not think this was going to be a big problem at the time.  As I was putting it together, the legs were too loose to pull around the shop to various tools.

The fix to this was to make a table out of 2 ½” PVC.  It is amazing how sturdy this is.  It is also difficult to remove pieces that were not cut to the correct dimension.  Overall, it came together in a few hours and works well. 

On the subject of using this as a vacuum, I find the system lacking.  I lose too much suction in the system to use effectively.  It does great pulling the sawdust from the machines because it is a closed system.  When I attach the floor attachment it does not seem to pull enough with the separator attachment.  Maybe I need a vacuum that pulls more CFM, but that is something I am not going to worry about.  I like how it works now.

Here is an update to the last paragraph.  Since I filled up a bucket, I swapped out to a new bucket.  The new bucket was purchased last year for the wood working class.  That bucket worked so much better.  Apparently a used beat up bucket does not work as well as a new one.

Goals this Year

This year is going to be an interesting experience.  I have moved so I need to set up my shop again.  The good thing is that most of my tools are on wheels, so I need to find locations for everything.  My area is a little bit bigger, but I lost all the overhead space.  I am also going to need to watch the items that we will need to store in the garage as we get snow and the kids start getting larger outdoor toys.  This process will take some time, but I am currently able to manage. 

I have found another guild to participate in.  It is a marketing ploy because the people who run the guild also push their product (they sell tools and lumber at the location).  The group seems strong and active in the community.  There is no toy drive, so I am going to have to find my own charities to donate to.  I hope to be able to get a little more involved and participate in the guild.  I am a little out of my element and there is a lot of members, so it will be easy to get lost in the group.

I am working on more magazine articles.  I just got requests for three more.  Two are pretty simple and the other one is going to take more time.  With the move and the cold weather, it is going to be a struggle to get these complete, but I like the challenge. 

I am also looking at getting back into the plan sales through retailers.  Now that I have been published, I am hoping I have a little more leverage.  I need to reach out to them again and see if they are interested.  Etsy sales are doing well and hope to continue that platform.

The major projects this year’s is going to be a couple of nightstands.  I am going to take it a little lighter this year because of the move and adjusting to a new workshop.  I am hoping these will turn out nice with nice hardwood lumber and finish.  I plan to do some traditional joinery.  Design wise, I am going to be looking at the house.  I need to design some closet systems to make the closets a little more functional.  Not sure what the toy front will look like this year.  I think that I need to take a break this year.

Year in Review

It was a crazy year for woodworking.  It was also a very successful year.  The biggest project was all the donations this year.  It will be a while before I do that many again.  I was looking to reduce my lumber supply with all the donations and I am glad I did.  The donations included a lot of the small trucks, cars, boats and planes.  There were also cradles, rocking chairs, and high chairs that were also donated.  I think I was a little more invested this year because I chose the charities.  I may have disappointed some of the people that receive donations from the club.  This year I also tried to include more people in the process.  I had people help paint and build which was fun. 
In terms of projects this year it would probably be the build and grow cars.  I just like how all of them turned out.  They were fun designs and solidly built.  My least favorite was probably be the battle axes.  I really do not like making weapons especially one that has the ability to do a lot of real damage.  It was fun to work with my brother on a project. 
Tools I picked up this year.  The list is small, thank goodness. The branding iron was needed for marketing.  It works well and I am glad I have it.  The other was a long time coming and I have not had much of a chance to use it.  That would be the new shop vac with the dust collection.  It seems to work well for the few times that I have used it.  That is it for tools.
I was able publish two plans this year and I was able to install several cabinets for a friend.  These were the two big sources of income this year.  My etsy shop also did really well.  I think there was a fair amount of traffic that was because I was published in a magazine.
I accomplished the main goals that I was working towards.I ended the year with moving to the other side of the country.  It will be interesting to setup a new work area and a new group.  I am going to have to find a new lumber yard also.

My Last Project in California

Phone Stands

 My last project in the current shop was a couple of cell phone holders.  I have done one in the past but this time I cut out a butterfly on the top of it.  The other was an easel that proved to be more complicated that I had hoped.  The size of the easel made the angles very shallow and I did not want to feel like it was going to fall over.  The other thing that I did not realize was the dimensions of the stock.  I originally went with 5/8” thick stock but that looked too thick, but ½” was too narrow to hold the phone.  I actually needed to be creative to make the ledge look thinner than it actually was.  That is what angles are for. 

The tricky part was the drilling the holes.  I drilled one and then used tape and super glue to hold it all together to make sure all the holes lined up.  It actually worked really well.  This was a lot of compound angles.  For the most part I sanded to a line.  The project made me think a lot about the angles and order of operations.